


How The Queen's Gambit Should Have Ended

by pallasite



Category: The Queen's Gambit (TV)
Genre: 1960s, Adoption, Alternate Ending, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Bisexuality, Character Study, Chess, Cold War, Family, Fix-It, Implied/Referenced Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Implied/Referenced Drug Addiction, Life Lessons, Multi, Orphans
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-09
Updated: 2020-12-09
Packaged: 2021-03-10 08:28:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,061
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27967565
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pallasite/pseuds/pallasite
Summary: I fixed the ending of The Queen's Gambit. (Nine or ten times.)
Relationships: Beth Harmon & Benny Watts, Beth Harmon & D. L. Townes, Beth Harmon & Everyone, Beth Harmon & Jolene, Beth Harmon/Benny Watts, Cleo/Beth Harmon
Comments: 36
Kudos: 25





	How The Queen's Gambit Should Have Ended

There's a few writing rules that should be followed.

Characters who succeed at their goals should face meaningful challenges along the way, and grow and change as a result of the process and the obstacles they've overcome.

Characters who can't grow and change are tragic in some way, and the story should reflect that.

Never foreshadow something over and over, and then DROP IT FROM THE STORY.

Also never point out an important object (for the plot or character development), and then DROP IT FROM THE STORY.

It's hard to get into a story that leaves big pieces unresolved (like "what is going on and why").

\-----

With that said, here are some ways this could have ended better.

  * Cleo



From the first time Beth arrives at the new high school, I thought she might be a lesbian. So I thought, wow, that's why she's confused about straight people and sex. That's why she's not into sex with men, though she tries. She's going to find herself attracted to women - HAVE A MAJOR CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT MOMENT - and then find herself. Finally, she will be able to overcome some of her emotional pain because she will discover the true meaning of intimacy.

What we got: She finds herself attracted to Cleo, she skips out on preparing for the match to get drunk and high and have sex with Cleo, WE NEVER SEE THE SCENE WITH THEM TOGETHER, and then Cleo is gone from the story, never to return. Beth experiences zero emotional change either from her recognition that she's bisexual (even though she was raised in 1960s Kentucky), or from her connection to Cleo. It looks like Cleo was written into the story (since she's not in the book) just so the writers could check a "Beth is now queer" checkbox. Cleo doesn't have any other role in the plot, either - she doesn't show up on-screen as a KGB spy, for example, which would also have been interesting.

So Cleo's reason for being in the story is what...? She doesn't impact Beth's character development, and she doesn't add a KGB twist.

Here are some possible fixes.

The happy ending: Cleo can be the turning point in Beth's life. She connects with Cleo in a way she's never connected with anyone, and she begins to heal emotionally from some of the trauma of her past. Through Cleo's support (as well as support from the others, who she is now more able to open herself to), Beth begins treatment for her addiction, or finds the strength otherwise to do something else she was too scared to do.

OR

The tragic arc: Beth becomes obsessed with Cleo, in an unhealthy way. Like the other famous chess player mentioned in the story, she stays out all night drinking and doing drugs before the match (with Cleo), and it's _because_ of her behavior that she loses to Borgov. (In the show, she says she would have lost anyway, which takes away all the narrative punch of her actions having consequences.) Except now she keeps having these kinds of nights with Cleo, until it's finally revealed that Cleo was a KGB agent, and this messes Beth up even more.

  * Vasily Borgov



The show foreshadows in two separate episodes that he may defect to the USA - in Paris, she asks who the men are around him and are told that two of the men are KGB agents there to keep Borgov from defecting (does Beth even understand what this means?), and then later, on the plane, her minder asks her to pay attention to any signal Borgov might send her, even though the chess game, and report it to him immediately. She still doesn't understand, but figures out her minder is some sort of government agent (who, I understand it, would help Borgov defect if he wanted to do so).

And then the story drops everything.

Here's a possible fix:

The happy ending: In Moscow, Borgov tries to send Harmon some sort of message (either in the game or in some other way) that he wants her help defecting to the USA. Because earlier in the story Beth has learned some lesson about helping others (not just being helped BY others all the time), takes some important step to help him, even if it requires a sacrifice on her part. (This fix would be easier to pull off if the final match wasn't in Moscow, but in another country abroad.) If Cleo is a KGB agent, for instance, she would have to break off contact with Cleo in order to help Borgov. He, too, is leaving everyone he loves to defect - including his wife (yes, he's wearing a wedding ring) and possibly children.

Angst ensues, in a complex sociopolitical drama.

  * Benny Watts



Why does he carry that hunting knife around, "for protection," if we're never going to see him use it, "for protection"?

Maybe we could see him using the knife to fend off attackers on the streets of NYC, saving Beth's life - and changing their relationship now that Beth sees he has risked his life to save hers. Maybe when he does this, she sees that Cleo was wrong, that he doesn't love himself more than anyone else, he really does love her - and then their relationship changes. (As it is, she treats him and everyone like trash, and then they all pull together for her at the end anyway. Why?)

  * D. L. Townes



This was a case of major bisexual erasure. Yes, he was attracted to her - even others could see it and thought they were a couple. There were two obvious reasons for them not to get together that first time - one, she's sixteen and he's thirty (so he could be attracted to her, but realize this is a bad idea given the age difference), and two, he's in a committed relationship with Roger. But yeah, he's bisexual, so please don't give me this "I wasn't really into you like that, I was confused" crap - BISEXUAL PEOPLE ARE NOT "CONFUSED" BECAUSE THEY'RE BISEXUAL - and if he identifies as gay and found himself confused that now he may be bisexual, then awesome, please give us some character development to show him wrestling with this.

Also, it seems she has no contact with him for years, and then randomly tells someone he's the one guy she's been in love with all this time. Where did that come from? If we're going there, please show us scenes with her thinking or writing about him. Maybe she tries to write him letters, and throws them in the trash over and over, not having the courage to write to him because "he's into Roger, he's in a relationship, HE'S GAY, he can't really be into me." Something. But she doesn't just grab him in a hug in Moscow, out of the blue. No, they were writing to each other, she knew he would be there, and that's their big reunion (even if he's still in a committed relationship with Roger).

And he can be involved in helping Borgov to defect.

  * Jolene



Am I the only one who felt like this show was pulling a "[Magical Negro](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magical_Negro)" trope here? She has no past (we don't know what happened to her parents), and every scene with them together in the orphanage is just there to infodump or help Beth somehow. She's just there, commenting on things. How are they friends, let alone close friends? What has Beth ever done to help Jolene, in any way? She's older, too - why is she, at about age eleven, friends with little Beth? She doesn't care about the one thing Beth cares about - chess. Beth just comes to her for drugs.

Of course, Jolene could have been introduced as a brilliant misfit in her own way - perhaps she has a photographic memory and reads everything she can find, and she and Beth bond over being the school's brilliant genius misfits. Then Beth gets adopted and Jolene does not, because Jolene is older and Black, but then at least it would make sense why Jolene shows up later and talks about going to law school, and that's not out of the blue. She shouldn't be saying, to paraphrase, "I was always jealous of you, because you had something I never had - talent." No, she should be talented in her own right, and Beth should be shown doing something when they're young that helps Jolene out of serious trouble, so that many years later, it makes sense that she "pays Beth back for her help" somehow and loans Beth the money for the trip to Moscow.

Otherwise we have a Black woman showing up out of nowhere and offering all this money to save a white woman after her own selfish behavior cost her the money for the trip, and not only saving her, but then literally [hanging a lampshade on it](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/LampshadeHanging) and telling the audience, "I'm not here to be your guardian angel. I'm not here to save you." (Yes you are.) And besides, if we show a Jolene who has real talent in her own right, maybe she won't have to be "sleeping with a partner in a law firm" in order to get ahead in life.

  * Beth's missing family



She asks her mom, "who was that?" and her mom says, "a mistake, a rounding error" and then tries to kill them both. So... who was that, and why was that scene there? Is that her biological father with his new wife and their infant?

No, writers, you had seven episodes - you had to tell us what is going on and why. Why did her mom drive her car into that other car and try her kill herself and Beth (and maybe the other driver, too)?

And does her dad ever try to make contact with her again, now that she's world famous? Clearly someone in town must realize this is the same Beth Harmon.

And if she has a younger brother or sister, does she meet that person? Perhaps after winning the world championship, she goes back to her hometown for an event, and meets this younger brother or sister, who also wants to play chess. Maybe things come full circle for her and she learns her father's side of the story. Maybe she takes on a new role in life as mentor to her younger sister or brother. Maybe she realizes that people who leave your life may not be "gone for good," that maybe her mother lied about her dad, and things really weren't as they seemed back when she was eight or nine years old. Maybe it took a trip around the world to learn that she was never alone, even back home.

  * Final thoughts



I needed to see Beth change somehow. In the happy ending, she overcomes her challenges with addiction and runs a chess school. Maybe she has to lose to Borgov in the final match to realize the importance of her friends and relationships - and maybe she beats him later, maybe not, but maybe helping him to defect is more important. Maybe she realizes her mother's choice to drive her car into that other car was SELFISH, and learns not to be selfish herself.

In the tragic ending, she fails to overcome her substance abuse problems and/or selfish behavior, and it crashes down on her, even after she wins the big match and it looks like she has done everything. I personally despise the "character realizes they're queer, falls in love, ends up dead" trope, so I wouldn't go there, but if Cleo is KGB, there could be interesting plot twists on Beth's road to self-destruction. She steps on everyone on her path to be THE BEST IN THE WORLD in chess, and then there is nothing more to achieve, and there is no one left in her life. The show looks like it's going there (she never even paid back Mr. Sheibel, she can't reciprocate Harry Beltik's feelings for her and only uses him so she won't feel lonely after her mom dies, she's rude to the church ladies and pretty much everyone, etc.), but then for some unexplained reason, everyone keeps pulling together to help her. In the tragic ending, no matter how much others pull together to try to help her, she still ends up destroying herself.


End file.
